In today’s lesson I will “reveal” some of the important secrets of the Japanese language.

Even if you know many漢字 ( = kanji) or difficult Japanese grammar, you won’t go further without getting familiar with what I am going to explain in this lesson.

OK, ちょっとずつね！( = chotto zutsu ne. ) little by little!

In many cases, ちょっと(=chotto) doesn’t have any specific meaning but it helps soften what you want to say and/or helps you to avoid being too straight with someone — a very important quality in Japanese. You will hear this particular use of ちょっと ( = chotto) all the time.

As I have mentioned in past lessons, Japanese people tend to avoid straight expressions. They prefer to say things in a roundabout 遠回し( = toomawashi) way.

That is why the Japanese language is considered to be 曖昧 ( = aimai), vague, unclear, ambiguous, obscure, noncommittal, reflecting their personality and culture.

Let’s see some examples here.

•ちょっと困ります。

= Chotto komarimasu.

= I am sorry but it would be a problem for me.

( You are obviously annoyed but by adding chotto, it sounds softer.)

• あの人はちょっとね…。

= Ano hito wa chotto ne….

= That person is a bit…/ kind of…

(Usually negative. So we can assume the person is a trouble.)

• 昨日、職場でちょっとあってさあ….。(casual)

= Kinou shokuba de chotto atte saa….

= There was something happened at work yesterday and…

(It insinuates there was some troubles at work. )

• 僕の彼女はちょっと可愛いんだよ！

= Boku no kanojo wa chotto kawaiin dayo.

= My girlfriend is quite cute!

(This chotto doesn’t mean “a little”. The speaker is bragging about his girlfriend in a modest way by usingちょっと(=chotto.))

Note : ちょっとした ( = chotto shita) ：adjective

Ex.ちょっとしたことだけど、すごく嬉しい。

= Chotto shita koto dakedo sugoku ureshii

= It’s a small (minor) thing but I am very happy!

Ex.私の父はちょっとした会社の社長だ。

= Watashi no chichi wa chotto shita kaisha no shachou da

= My father is a president of a quite big/well-known company.

(It hints that the company is big or famous.)

Ex.彼の作品ってちょっとしたもんだね。

= Kare no sakuhin tte chotto shita monda ne.

= His work is not bad at all!

(もん ( = mon) is a casual way of saying 物 = もの ( = mono) things.

ちょっとした物 ( = Chotto shita mono) could be a small something as its literal meaning but sometimes we use it as “pretty good“)

In the lesson, I mentioned a line which you can say to a person who has just lost their family

• (この度は、)ご愁傷様でした。

= goshuushou sama deshita.

= Sorry for your loss. My condolences.

You could also just say,

•この度は…（ = kono tabi wa…)

Note : この度 ( = konotabi) means “this time“

Because Japanese language is 曖昧 ( = aimai) ambiguous and we use 遠回しな言い方 ( = toomawashi na iikata ) round about expressions, sometimes it causes misunderstanding with people who are not familiar with this custom.

For example, you made some business proposal to a company and they say :

• 考えておきます。

= kangaete okimasu

= We’ll think about it.

• 少し考えさせて下さい。

= Sukoshi kangae sasete kudasai.

= Let me(us) think a little. Give us some time to thinkabout it.

• 検討させて下さい。

= Kentou sasete kudasai.

= Let us review/go over this.

As many of language resources might say, it doesn’t always mean they actually think about it, and it could be indirect way of saying “No!” or at least that there is not much of a chance.

We try to avoid saying “No!” to people immediately face to face and tell them we will think about it.

But there are cases when we actually need time to take matters into consideration and say these quotes. So it depends on the situation. I guess we have to observe the speaker’s facial expressions and everything.

(っ)ていうか ( = (t)tteiuka) ／つーか ( = tsuuka) てか ( = teka) are originally fromというか ( = toiuka) or rather / rather to say.We use this when we want to take back our words and rephrase them, add something, or deny what someone has just said.

Hi, Kano!
So someone asking that person if he is going back home now.
The speaker doesn’t want to tell that person what he is going to do/where he is going,
(Ah, no I am not going home) I have something to do.
So in this case, ちょっとな(male speech)

Hello, maggie sensei! This is my first time replying to one of your lessons !niconico! ﻿﻿ !niconico! ﻿﻿ I had watched this drama called 明日、ママがいない and heard this phrase ちょっと離してよ！ have you ever done a lesson on 離す？ I don’t understand it really.

wow, tottemo helpful Maggie sensei AS ALWAYS
^ o ^ and this is SO important cause the last thing you want is to go to another country, unintentionally offend people, and not even know it (cause knowing japanese, they probably won’t even react to it they’ll just get offended and be quiet about it…)
and such a loooong lesson… otsukaresama!!
so またの機会に！can that be used for any kind of invitation (like goukon etc) or only for nomikai?
and ごたごた is busy?
and this form of the verb with -reba, like がんばれば nanka “I wish…” ne? I’ve seen it a few times and it seems like it always gives out that kind of feeling ne…

Hi Aki! Yes, you can use またの機会に for any invitations.
ごたごたしていて…: Yes it means you are busy taking care of some problems or troubles. When you have some troubles but you don’t to give others any details, you say ごたごたしていて…
The last question : ?? -reba? I wish? Which verb are you talking about?

thank you~!
ah I was just wondering about that reba ending (it’s called conditional form of the verb ne?) and it’s sometimes used as “If… then…” right?
so I was wondering if you had a lesson on that conditional verb or if you could explain it to me really quick? conditional form ga wakaranaiyo ~_~

Oh I see. れば!! It can be used for conditional sentence and also suggestions,etc.
Conditional forms is complicated. But I am working on たら(Remember you asked me before?) right now so will include some more information in that lesson.
待っててね！

I’m so sorry for not replying back sooner ^_^; I just realized that I spelt the name of the game wrong, so that might be why you aren’t able to find information on it (すみません）. It’s お姫さまデビュー (Princess Debut).

To sum it up, it’s about a girl who switches places with a princess who looks exactly like her. The girl then has to dance with all these other princes and socialize with them…so it’s partially a dating sim for girls, too.

I’ve come across a lot of the vocabulary you’ve mentioned already, and that is quite awesome! The only thing I keep tripping on is place names. I know for things such as lake 「湖」 that there’s two ways to pronounce the kanji. When it’s by itself, and when it follows the name of the place. It’s hard, but I think I’ll eventually get the hang of it.

Jackiさん
どういたしまして！The name of the places are sometimes confusing. I checked the game. Looks very cute. I added two more words on the previous vocabulary. If you don’t understand the certain word, please let me know.
Good luck on the games!

Just wanted to say ありがとう for this post. I’ve been looking over it a few times the past few days, and it’s been very useful for learning new 漢字。I don’t know how you manage to post so many chokfull lesson each day!

If it’s alright, I have a request. I recently imported a game called お姫さまデーブ, and although it’s for children (specifically girls), there’s a good amount of royalty vocabulary that I’m not familiar with. Could you make a lesson that involves something with お姫や王子や王女？ If not, I understand, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt (much) to ask ^^;

こんにちは！Jacki!! Thank you for visiting my site!
Yes, I don’t know how I manage to make these lessons, either! ;-) I mean I am a busy dog. I have to play, hide a bone, eat…etc.
I am not familiar with the game and I couldn’t find any information on the web but I can give you some of the basic vocabulary for today, OK?

前向き is usually positive. Ex.彼女はとても前向きな人だ。（＝Kanojo wa tototemo maemuki na hito da.) She is very positive person.
So just saying 考えておきます。or ちょっと考えておきます。may not to have much chance but if someone tells you 前向きに考えておきます。, you can expect more chance.
If someone says「それでは考えておきます。」, we sometimes add「是非、前向きに御検討下さい。」(=zehi maemuki ni gokentou kudasai.) to encourage them to think more seriously to give us more chance.
Comment 有り難う！